O/T(ish) A cautionary tale if jetting away : Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:16 pm
This is a cautionary tale for anyone planning to jet off abroad this (or any other) summer, or maybe planning to fly to Perpignan.We were planning a summer holiday to either Portugal or the Canaries until the fixtures for this season were released. When realising that we could holiday on the Costa Brava instead and take a day trip to Perpignan to take in the game I persuaded ‘She’ (who must be obeyed) to change our plans.
'She' (who must be obeyed) agreed so I managed to find ourselves a great looking hotel in Tossa de Mar. Transfers from Barcelona airport seemed quite expensive and also quite time consuming (a major consideration when travelling with a six year old) so we reluctantly decided on using Ryanair into Girona. This turned out to be a major mistake.
Flights, hotel, transfers and airport parking were all booked and paid for months ago, and we could start to look forward to our two weeks in the sun as well as my first visit to Perpignan. Then a few weeks ago I received an email from Ryanair advising me that our return flight had been changed – not to a different time, but to the following day! Airport parking was the cheapest online option and couldn’t be changed so £45 down the drain. Fortunately the transfers could be amended for free but for an extra night in the hotel we had to cough up another £165.
Not very happy at having to find an extra £165 and losing our car park money, but at least we didn’t rebook a new car park deal. Over the weekend I got another email from Ryanair. This time they have altered our outbound flight from the Tuesday to the Monday. Just received a quote from the hotel and they want another £355 for the extra night, plus I am self employed and travelling Monday means closing the business over the weekend (my busiest time) hence losing a full weekends takings.
I cannot begin to put into words how angry I am right now. I estimate that if we accept Ryanairs change then they will cost me about £1200 extra including lost revenue. We could have gone to the Caribbean for what the total cost would come too. As it is I have decided to bite the bullet, cancel the Ryanair booking (which is an option they give though I will be amazed if I get all my money back), rebook to Barcelona with Easyjet and hire a car for the duration of our stay. Even this is going to cost me over £500 but at least I will be able to keep trading over the weekend before we go.
Moral of the story – be careful when booking holidays seperatley rather than as a package. We have done it for years, and it does work out cheaper, but when you get caught out you really do get caught out. Also, steer clear of the (I can’t type what I want to here so let’s just say) irish airline. They’re an absolute disgrace. Even their customer support is expensive to phone, they keep you on hold for best part of 30 minutes and they you get some fella saying “hello... hello... I can’t hear you, you will have to phone back”.
Be warned!!!
